WORCESTER 
Testimony got under way Thursday in the Worcester Superior Court trial of a Northboro man accused of running an illegal dump site and violating environmental laws.

Santo Anza, 52, of 25 Reservoir St., Northboro, has pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of violating the state’s solid waste and clean air acts and three counts of animal cruelty in connection with what prosecutors said was an illegal composting and solid waste operation at 429 Whitney St., Northboro.

His jury-waived trial began Thursday before Judge Richard T. Tucker. The trial was to continue today and then be suspended for several weeks because of the unavailability of certain prosecution witnesses.

Prosecutors from the office of Attorney General Martha Coakley contend that Mr. Anza ran an unlawful dump site that was used to dispose of materials that included rotten food, garbage and dead animals. Odors from the site created a public health nuisance that literally sickened neighbors, prosecutors said.

After buying the 15-acre site in 2009, Mr. Anza told local officials he would be using the property as a farm.

In October of the following year, Mr. Anza applied for and was granted a composting registration from the state. After his renewed temporary composting certificate expired in April 2011, Mr. Anza continued to haul in tons of solid waste, prosecutors maintain.

In October 2011, the state attorney general’s office shut down operations at the site after a judge in Suffolk Superior Court issued a preliminary injunction that prohibited Mr. Anza from accepting solid waste and compost materials. He was also ordered to allow state inspectors on the site to separate the animals there by species and ensure they were in proper enclosures.

In his opening statement in the case, Assistant Attorney General Peter Downing said he expected the evidence to show that Mr. Anza ran an illegal dump that resulted in violations of the clean air and solid waste acts and produced odors that were so “unbearable” at times that “neighbors would be forced to retreat indoors from their yards.”

Mr. Anza’s lawyer, Mark G. Miliotis, said in his opening statements that his client was using the materials brought onto the site for food and bedding for his animals and to vegetate the property for use as a farm.

He described Mr. Anza as “a third-generation farmer” with expertise in such fields as landscaping, recycling, composting and green farming.

The first witness called to the stand Wednesday afternoon by Assistant Attorney General Andrew A. Rainer was Scott Stocklin, whose home at 12 Patrick Drive in Northboro is near the Whitney Street site.

Mr. Stocklin, who bought his house in 1999, said he routinely walked his dog on an elevated aqueduct overlooking 429 Whitney St. At some point in 2009, he said, he saw trees and vegetation being cut down on the site and large tractor-trailers dumping their contents on the property.

He said he also began hearing what sounded like explosions on the site.

Later on, he said, he began noticing odors coming from the property.

“To me, it smelled almost like rotting garbage. It really had the power to make you ill.”

Under cross-examination by Mr. Miliotis, Mr. Stocklin acknowledged that he never actually set foot on Mr. Anza’s land.